“Offensively, we took care of the ball except for the one throw by Jacoby that he forced. Turnover margin we came out even. The most disappointing thing probably was that we forced four fumbles in the game and when we got one of them and dropped a gimme pick. Those are plays that being an opportunistic team we need to find a way to move forward. We averaged 4.9 yards of carry in the run game, 2.2 yards after contact so I was proud of that. We only had six of what we consider explosive plays and our goal is to have 10 a game so that’s an area we need to improve.
“One thing I thought we did a good job of was that they didn’t have a single tackle on our backfield in the run game, and no tackles for loss for them. We gave up the one sack, which is one too many. It was a pretty clean game for the first game; there were three penalties throughout the game by the offense. Three procedure penalties; one of them on Matt (Dayes) in our no house stuff. We had a 99-yard touchdown drive coming off of a turnover, which was a turning point in the game.
“On our first down offense we averaged 6.9 yards on first downs so that was a big part of our success. I thought the game and some individual guys played well; Jacoby (Brissett) got in a rhythm had 70 percent on the day. He threw the ball around to nine different people so we were able to distribute the ball pretty well. Defensively for the first game I felt like we tackled well, we had good contact, there was a lot of nice hits. We had 11 freshmen on that side of the ball throughout the game so there were a lot of new people, true or redshirt.
“I thought our “D” line and our corners and Hakim, our free safety, had good games for us. We struggled in some positions with some new guys in there, and really with six plays that defined the game for our defense. There were six plays that lead the 260 yards out of their total offense. We had a 61-yard gain, a 52 yard gain, a 51 yard gain a 29 yard, 37 and a 30 in those six plays, and you can’t take them back. If you take those six plays out it’s a different football game and that’s a great learning experience I think for a young defense, that every snap is the most important play.
“The positives on that side of the football, I thought they were aggressive, I thought in the red zone when they got down there four time and got zero touchdowns on our defense that’s outstanding. Had one take away down there and held them to three field goals on the other drives. The one sudden change after Jacoby’s pick they went three and out and held onto a field goal so I think when the pressure was on those guys even at the end of the game with 1:30 and a timeout left that first down, second down, third down, fourth down stopped them and got us back to football. We’re encouraged by some of those things and by their effort, and we just have to clean up things against a good offense.
“On special teams we covered punts and kicks well. I thought Wil (Baumann) punted the ball extremely well for us. That was a big part of the game; he had great punt out of his own end zone. We missed two long field goals, which I know Nik (Sade) was close on both of them and had the leg and was just outside the right upright.
“We played 20 new guys in the game, so a lot of guys got game experience. It was hot and I’ve talked about our conditioning and how our strength coach did a nice job getting our players ready. Our nutrition staff our training staff had the guys hydrated, and I know their team wasn’t. My hat is off to our staff for taking care of our guys and our guys for working hard at it. I appreciate the fans that stayed throughout the game it means a lot to us. We get to come back this week and play a different type of team.
“Old Dominion is a successful team like Georgia Southern. They’ve had five seasons in a row with eight wins or more. They have probably the most exciting quarterback at their level until they moved up this year, A Walter Payton Award winner, Taylor Heinicke. The guy’s a really good player. He doesn’t throw a lot of picks, throws a ton of touchdowns, understands their offense and just has a lot of savvy to make a lot of throws, and gets out of the pocket and makes things happen. They averaged over 42 points a game in three of the last five seasons. I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff; I know a couple of those guys. They have two receivers that make plays; number 5 (Antonio Vaughan), had got great speed for them. Their tailbacks ran for almost 180 yards on Saturday and number 30 (Gerard Johnson) had 138 yards. Another challenging offense for our defense to play against, and defensively they’ve made some changes and covered schemes on their side. At least in their first game they did compared to last year, so we’ll see if that carries forward.
“Another great game, and I’m excited for our fans to have a night game and get a chance to see the Pack in Black uniform and helmet. I know our fans, players and recruits that have reached out to me were excited about the release yesterday about the look. We’re excited to break those out. It’s Ag Day and it’s a neat deal for agricultural not just alums but the School of Agriculture and all of the partnerships we have.”
On 20 new guys and attributing unfamiliarity to slow start: A lot. I think it’s natural to play not to make a mistake early because you don’t want to screw up, and when you’re playing that way it’s natural to not play full speed. Whether it’s throwing a ball behind or slipped off a block or just not triggering on defense the way you need to trigger. I think that’s a lot of it and the guys settled down as the game went on.
On switching defensive system at end of last season: People ask me that and I don’t really understand where they’re coming from. TCU and Virginia Tech are two of the best rushing defenses in college football on a 4-2-5. We didn’t give up the yardage we gave because of our nickel; we gave it up because the safety misfit a gap or a DM that was supposed to be on a quarterback tackled a guy instead. It had nothing to do with who was in the game at nickel. We went to it so that we could be more versatile in our coverage schemes and this week we’ll have chance to do that. Being able to stop the run earlier at 4-3 and 4-2-5 and 3-4 and 3-3-5 is about gap accountability and tackling. We didn’t do that six times Saturday and we paid for it. I’m excited to get some players back, not having Tim Buckley hurt us a little bit in that game. I think Tim’s a very good athlete who didn’t get to play because he got sick and hopefully we’ll get him back soon. The rotation we had up front I think helped up and helped our linebackers. With M.J. (Salahuddin) being out and Jerod (Fernandez) went down for a little bit, Airius (Moore) was in there for a while, a true freshman playing against a triple option was tough for him. That was part of the problems that we had.
On chart changes with Barr, Nelson and Wright: As the week went on we felt more comfortable with Alex (Barr) being in there mentally. Worried about telling them to lead a little bit early on, and they’ll start to play more and more I think as we go. Monty (Nelson) was hurt for two weeks in training camp so when I released the depth chart I released it based on who was practicing. He came back earlier than we expected and we’re glad he did because he played a great game. Tim (Buckley) was sick so that’s what happened with that change.
On Bra’Lon Cherry as go-to wide receiver: Bra’Lon made some nice plays and he could have had another one on the sideline, he dropped one that I thought was a pretty easy catch. He’s put on 20 pounds or so and he’s playing more physical, more aggressive and more confident. He did a nice job of getting open in key moments and Jacoby threw some pretty good balls to catch. He almost had another one that got behind him in the red zone on the other side of the field and was just overthrown a little bit.
On alternate uniforms: I don’t know if its just keeping up with the times but the reason we wanted to do them was really two-fold. Excitement for our current team; I think that’s something that gets the guys excited and obviously when you’re doing that for your players its going to help with recruiting as well. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just throwing something on to throw it on and that it was something that embodied all the principles of our colors and our mascot, the wolf. Using it at night I think matched up really well. Terry Callaway and Adidas did a nice job putting together all the designs. Its not something were going to do a lot because we have a lot of pride in the traditional uniform here. When we get to do it were going to make sure that it really fit and that people understand why we did it.
On young guys stepping up in game one: Well they need to. We brought them in here and brought them in early to play. We needed a lift. Bo (Hines) had nine catches, Stephen (Louis) had a catch. The first play of the season was Shawn Boone on kickoff cover age making a tackle. That was the first play of the season’ a true freshman. That was exciting, and there were some new faces in there; Charlie Twitty, a walk-on we put on scholarship, had a big hit on a punt. I think all of the new guys that are in the room need to step up and play well, and that’s why they came here. Kentavius (Street) was out there and got a lot of reps for us as well.
On Old Dominion last season against Carolina: I think for us, where we’re at we’re so young we can’t compare ourselves to other people. We have to really worry about our own problems and we had enough of them Saturday and that’s where our focus will be. You don’t go far to turn on the film to see how good their (Old Dominion) quarterback is and snap end if you’re a defensive player. We didn’t defend the pass the way we need to Saturday so there’s going to be a lot of emphasis on getting better there. Old Dominion is a team that played poorly in that one game last year and played really well in a bunch of other ones so it’s going to be easy to find other moments.
On “compete and finish” happening in game one: I think that was huge on a lot of fronts. We were well documented on the fourth forehand we lost last year and to be able to get into one and win and make clutch throws and catches and stops. All of those things had to happen and they did. Second thing is we changed a lot in our conditioning program and it was hard on the guys and I think what he did really created some buy in there on why we work the way we do because it was obvious in that game who the best shape team was and who was the most physical and conditioned not just physically but mentally. Our guys were fresh in the fourth quarter and it wasn’t because of a rotation. We were going no huddle and our receivers never left the field and I know our offensive line never stopped the entire game.
On Jacoby Brissett and demeanor changing between first and second half: I don’t feel like it did. I just think he got hot. He needed to make a mistake probably and bounce back from it and get in a rhythm and get going. I think he started doing what he was supposed to do. He was aggressive and it looked like he was having some fun. I think he saw the guys making plays for him, which makes it easier.
On Bryan Underwood and large rotation of players in key positions: I was disappointed he didn’t get the ball. We had some plays for him in there and just when we called them it didn’t happen. There were a couple of deep plays we wanted to run to him and a couple of jets and just they way they were lining up it wasn’t going to be there. Sometimes that happens. They were playing really soft coverage and everything was underneath him in the game and that’s not his deal, catching it and getting hit right away is not what he does well. He’s more of a separation guy, a jet guy, an across the field type guy. We haven’t forgotten about him; the first thing I said to Coach Canada after the game is that we need to make sure he’s touching the ball more. Sometimes things are working and then in the second half they start throwing the ball underneath him. As far as rotating players I think that if guys practice well they deserve to play. There’s a bunch of guys that worked their butts off at camp and when you play a lot of guys you get better practice out of your team because they know they’re going to get in. I also think when you get a hot hand you have to go with the hot hand. I think you saw that with Shad (Shadrach Thornton) as the game went on. That’s how it works; you try to use their skill sets and you try to work their hard work and then you have to go with the guys that are going to make the plays.